Vanuatu Cash Working Group

The VCWG is established as a working group under the umbrella of the NDMO and the Vanuatu Humanitarian Team (VHT), and will link with other national coordination mechanisms, such as the cluster system in place. The VCWG will also link directly and benefit from the support of the Pacific Regional Cash Working Group (PRCWG), which sits under the Pacific Humanitarian Team and is located in Fiji.  

Although limited Cash Transfer Programming (CTP) interventions have been implemented in the Vanuatu context (2015, TC Pam), efforts has recently increased to build awareness, advocate for cash transfer programmes, and to explore the feasibility and appropriateness of these approaches in Vanuatu (Vanuatu Cash Transfer Feasibility Study, ongoing, Oxfam). 

Some of the largest gains to be offered by CTP to humanitarian actors in Vanuatu are: reduced costs in logistics and delivery compared to in-kind interventions; Private Sector partnerships; multi-sector impacts owing to the fungibility of cash; and increased dignity and flexibility for recipients. It is also widely acknowledged that CTP represents an approach that contributes simultaneously to recipient recovery as well as recovery and support to surrounding local markets and stakeholders who benefit from recipient purchases.  

The Vanuatu Cash Transfer Working Group (VCWG) therefore seeks to strengthen learning, evidence, and context-appropriate design of CTP for disaster preparedness and response. The group will complement the in-country formal coordination structures of the Government and private sector.